Absorbent composites are incorporated into a variety of absorbent articles, including personal care products, health/medical products, and household/industrial products, for example. Conventional absorbent composites are typically not stretchable.
Elastomeric materials have been incorporated into various structural components of absorbent articles to achieve a better fit, greater comfort, and enhanced containment. For example, absorbent articles having stretchable outer covers and/or stretchable body side liners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,738 issued to Kielpikowski, et al. and in PCT Publication No. WO 02/34184 in the name of Vukos, et al. Adding stretchability to absorbent composites is difficult because elastomeric materials per se are not absorbent, and the addition of elastomeric materials to absorbent composites typically inhibits the liquid handling properties of the absorbent composites. More particularly, the relatively large resistant force or retraction force of elastic matrices leads to low liquid intake rates/permeability due to significant reduction of inter-particle void volume, and the low wettability of elastomeric materials results in poor liquid distribution.
A number of stretchable absorbent composite materials have been developed, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,389 issued to McDowall et al. However, existing stretchable absorbent composites have not been optimized to achieve an optimum range of liquid handling abilities. Low liquid intake rates, or low liquid permeability, causes high-speed, high-pressure, liquid insults to either pool on top of or run off the sides of the absorbent composite before the absorbent composite has a chance to absorb all of the liquid. Furthermore, in the absence of suitable liquid distribution capabilities, liquid insults cannot be sufficiently directed to unsaturated areas of the absorbent composite when necessary.
There is a need or desire for absorbent composites that are stretchable and have sufficient composite permeability. There is a further need or desire for an absorbent article including a stretchable absorbent composite with optimum liquid handling abilities. There is yet a further need or desire for a method of making a stretchable absorbent composite having optimum liquid handling abilities.